First Car
by Ashen jar
Summary: Dawn needs Spike's assistance with her driver's ed, but is that all either of them really need? A story about Dawn and Spike attempting to cope with Buffy's death. Set in the summer between season 5 and 6. Rated for mentions of character death. One-shot. Spike and Dawn friendship.


Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing of great value, which by default means I don't own Buffy or any of the other characters on Joss' amazing show. Everything belongs to Joss, ME, and any of those other uber-rich people; I just get to play with their toys!

Author's note: Hello everyone! So I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for a while now, and have just now worked up the courage to write it down and post it. Just so everyone knows, this is set during the summer that Buffy is dead. Now on with the story!

**First Car**

Dawn slams the kitchen door shut behind her with a ferocity that rattles the pictures on the wall. She stomps across the room and dumps her backpack on the table top, then she flops down into one of the straight back kitchen chairs and with a groan of despair lets her head fall with a thunk onto the hard wooden surface of the table.

"It's not fair!" She whines, while giving her backpack a death inducing glare of utter hatred.

" 'Eh now Bit, what's this all 'bout?" Spike comes through the living room door, a worried frown on his face. "Those other girlies at your school bein' mean to you again?"

Dawn doesn't even raise her head from the table as she replied in a tone that suggests he should already know the answer. "No, for once it's not the girls, it's just everything else! I have four pages of algebra homework and an essay due tomorrow and to top it off, just in case I don't have enough to do, there's this stupid drivers ed class that we have to take! It is a waste of time, and it doesn't even matter, it's just a whole bunch of ridiculousness, I mean Buffy couldn't drive and she…"

Spike sees the flash of pain in her eyes and he feels a familiar tightening around his unbeating heart, as if something were trying to wring any remaining drops of pain from him, as if he didn't hurt enough as it was. He mentally shakes his head and focuses on the girl sitting dejectedly in front of him. He puts his hand gently on her shoulder, just for a second, as she takes a deep shuddering breath, then he lets his hand drop.

"Sorry," Dawn whispers, swiping at her eyes to catch the little tears that have collected there, "I didn't mean to go all teary on you…" "That's a'right Niblet, you gotta let it out, I'm here for you," She cuts him off mid-sentence, continues as though she hasn't even heard him, "I just miss her so much you know? And I'll forget and say something or see something and then I think about her and it just hurts, it's just not fair." She finishes not much above a whisper, and if it weren't for his enhanced hearing he wouldn't have heard what she said.

Spike looks down at his little Niblet, at a loss as what he should say to help her, ease her pain, make her stop hurting, if only for a little while. He doesn't know how to help, and he fears he hasn't been much of a help the past few weeks, his own grief over Buffy's death blinding and paralyzing him still even after all this time. It had been so much worse, he had stopped eating, stopped taking care of himself, but then one morning Dawn had come to his crypt, tears streaming down her face. He had held her and tried to comfort her, his own pain pushed aside in order that he help her. After that day, he had attempted to get his act back together, he began to assist the Scoobies with the nightly patrolling, he started to watch Dawn on a regular basis, anything to keep his mind off of guilt and sadness, if for no other reason than because he made a promise to a lady.

She finally looks up at him, "Do you think it's wrong to want to drive? Is it rude to B-Buffy?" She stumbles over her sister's name, trying to not break down again.

In a moment of insight, Spike realizes what the problem is. Dawn isn't upset about the added work of having to do drivers ed, she's upset with herself because she feels it might be irreverent to Buffy's memory if Dawn were to enjoy something like driving. And, he also realizes that it probably causes Dawn to think of buffy when she thinks about driving.

Suddenly, he knows what he can do, it is a little thing, but every little bit counts, right? So, Spike looks down gently at the young girl who has somehow worked her way into the unbeating heart of the Big Bad, and says,

"It's not wrong at all, Bit." Spike replies, "In fact I bet she'd like to know you can drive. Anyway with me here to teach you, it shouldn't be that hard, right?"

The nest day, Spike was starting to regret agreeing to help Dawn with her driver's Ed homework. For one thing, he wasn't known for following rules, much less traffic safety regulations.

"Why do I even need to know what the fines are for breaking the driving laws?" Dawn complained. "It's not like I plan on getting a DUI! And you're no help, how could you not know that you're supposed to pull over for an emergency vehicle!"

Spike humph-ed in frustration, "Well, how should I know? There weren't even driver's licenses when I first drove a car!"

Dawn looks up quickly, happy for the distraction. "Ooh, tell me about your first car!"

"Ah, pet you don' wanna hear that, do you?" Spike looks at her with a confused expression on his face, wondering why she would want to hear about the incident.

She is practically bouncing on the couch cushion in her excitement. "I wanna hear about it! Did you wear those funny goggles like they do in the old movies? "

She looks so eager that Spike chuckles at her antics, decides she's done enough work for now and launches into the story. "Well, me an' Dru were in Europe, it was sometime in the 1900's, right after the Poof got his soul and Darla kicked 'im out. Anyway, me an' Dru were on our own and we were looking for somethin' tasty. We were in France, right outside of Paris, I think, and there was this thing this fella' was drivin' around in. Now, Dru, she din' like it any, said it was loud and it stank and the fairies couldn' have tea on account of all the racket."

"But me, I thought it was amazin' I hadn' ever seen anything so beautiful and deadly and dangerous in all my life. So, I talked her into it, and that night, once the sun 'ad set, I followed the man to a darker part of town, and then jumped 'im!"

Spike pauses, noticing the slight look of horror that Dawn is giving him. "Er, so anyway, we drove around, but Dru never did like that thing so she made me get rid of it. Bloody brilliant car it was too!"

Dawn's forehead scrunches as she ponders something that is bothering her, then she blurts out, "Did it have a crank like old cars do?"

Spike thinks for second then nods, "Sure did! That was one of the major drawbacks, havin' to get out and crank it to start. What made you think of that question?"

"Cause if we had to do that to drive these days, I think I wouldn't ever learn to drive cause it would be way to exhausting!"

Spike stares at her for a second, and then bursts out laughing, deep chuckles so infectious that they make the corners of Dawn's mouth twitch upward in a semi-smile. Dawn can't ever remember seeing Spike this happy, and she's glad that for just a moment she was able to help ease his pain over the death of her sister. She hates to see him so sad and depressed all the time and she finds herself wishing that she could help him in the way that he helps her.

When he finally finishes laughing, Dawn is siting there with her arms folded across her chest, giving him a mock stern expression.

"Are you quite finished?" She asks in snooty voice, "Cause if you are, I have more homework I need to work on."

He sees the glimmer of laughter in her eyes, she can't hide that from him, he knows her too well. Even though she didn't show it outwardly, it is enough for him to know that, if just for a moment, she forgot her heartache, and was just a care free little girl.

"Yeah Niblet, what else you need help with?" He smiles to himself as they both bend over her algebra workbook, and later in the week, he smiles again to himself when he finds a book on the coffee table: "The History of the Automobile, in Pictures". And Dawn smiles to herself when she finds a yellow sticky note stuck over a photo in the book that says in beautiful flowing cursive, "_This was my first car, notice the crank_?"

The End

Author's note: (another one) So what did you think? I would greatly appreciate any and all reviews, but keep in mind that this is my very first fic ever and so please don't be too mean. :) Also, I'm not by any standard a car history expert, so if any of catch any major issues, let me know and I will fix them to the best of my ability!


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